The 'lido deck' repairs...........

7:54 am - Saturday - March 21st - Wittmann, AZ - 51° F, 65% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the northwest......partly cloudy skies with a forecast high of 70° F.....the view this morning.......↴

Morning health update.....TLE and I continue to be asymptomatic.  We are healthy, not so wealthy, and a little wiser.  The worldwide confirmed case totals as of Friday morning are still below a quarter million, and worldwide deaths just over 10,000.  I know as of Saturday morning those numbers have gone up.  Within the U.S. as of Friday night the death rate in the U.S. was 1.3%....far below the forecast 2%.  In Arizona we recorded our first death from the Chinese Virus, and we have 63 confirmed cases of the Chinese Virus.....nothing catastrophic yet.

 As of Friday morning

I had two projects Friday to occupy my time......fix the Zip Dee patio awning, which was not on my 'TO DO' list originally, but was added after the microburst, and finally install the new passenger door interior pull handle (to close the door from the inside) which broke a few weeks ago, which was also not on my original 'TO DO' list.  Over the past 6 years we have repaired most of the seams as the 38 year old thread has given up the ghost.  The two seams which came undone during the microburst are the last two seams.....the other seams, which had been previously glued using the clear silicone caulk held during the microburst, which made us very happy.  We use silicone caulk for the repairs as the Sunbrella® fabric is also silicone based, and it has worked, and continues to work well in repairs. The Sunbrella® itself is in wonderful condition considering its age.

To repair the 87" long seams I use black sail thread to stitch the seam back together in two, or three places.....

You can see the two places I stitched with the 

light shinning through the open seam in between the stitches

.......once that is done I wedged a 2" x 4" in between the roller mechanism, and the roof just under the awning, then get on my telescoping ladder and apply the silicone between the overlapping pieces of fabric all along the 87" seam then press the fabric down against the 2" x 4", and let it cure in the sun for an hour before removing the 2" x 4", and moving to the next seam.  I could only reach half of the seam from the ladder, so I had to go on the roof, lay on my stomach to apply the silicone, and then compress the seams together....it worked well....

.....one of the repaired seams can be seen in the picture above.......⤴  While I waiting for the first seam to cure in the sun I turned my attention to removing the old door pull, and installing the new one....the new, aftermarket, door pull is a much better design, and I think this one will last much longer than the first.......↴

The new door pull

......I had to make a run to the Wittman P.O. to pick up the Thetford rebuild kit I bought to replace the 38 year old rubber gaskets in one of the valves.  The kit rebuilds one Thetford valve, so  I removed the gaskets from the new Thetford valve I bought a few weeks ago for the second valve.  Ironically the rebuild kit cost more than buying the new Thetford valve.  I will endeavor to do the rebuild Saturday.  I'm hoping it will all go smoothly....hoping, hoping, hoping!

We continue to enjoy our stay here on the property of Tom and Darlene, and appreciate the fact we are in the perfect place at this time in history.  We are not stuck in the middle of large, dense population centers.  We have acres of open space, good air to breath, and very gracious, generous, and caring hosts willing to put up with us for weeks at a time each year.  Life could not be better right now in spite of the circumstances.  We will get through this, and we will come out stronger on the other side.....let's just hope the 'other side' is not too far in the distance.

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